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On May 4th, 1919, over 3,000 Chinese students gathered in Tiananmen Square to protest.

People were deeply angered by Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles, which gave Japan jurisdiction over the province of Shandong rather than returning it to authorities in China. From these protests one of the most influential cultural movements in Chinese modern history began. Today it is known as the May Fourth Movement.

The subtext behind the movement was a demand for cultural modernization as the younger generation felt restricted by Confucian tradition. Young radicals, such as Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi, even saw Confucianism as something that kept China and its people in a constant state of humiliation.

The new cultural movement called for emancipation of the individual, democracy and science. It appeared that the majority of Chinese society was ready to answer that call, even though just before 1919 such demands were mostly popular among a few intellectuals.

Bad news from Paris

During World War I, China was fighting as part of an anti-German front hoping that Allied Forces would help their cause to get rid of the Germans who had occupied Shandong province. The Chinese even sent 140,000 soldiers to fight in France but that did not help the cause.

Japan conquered Shandong and took it from the Germans in 1915 and the Treaty of Versailles established the Japanese right to keep the land. This was a big blow for the Chinese, as Shandong has a huge symbolic meaning as the birthplace of Confucius.

When this bad news spread to China, the students decided they would not accept the outcome. On that historic May 4 morning, students from 13 different universities met in Peking and drafted five resolutions. They strongly opposed the granting of Shandong to the Japanese, they decided to create a Beijing student union and they saw it as their mission to draw awareness of Chinese public to China's precarious position.

They also resolved to have a large-scale demonstration in Beijing that same afternoon to protest the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

From demonstrations to cultural movement

The cultural movement was established almost on the same day as 3,000 students gathered in Tiananmen Square. Protesters shouted slogans, condemned the Allied Forces that had betrayed the Chinese, but they also accused the Chinese ruling establishment for selling out and being “spineless”.

Students gathered in Tiananmen square on May 4th, 1919. (Photo: Wikipedia)

In the aftermath, a house of one of the cabinet ministers was burnt down and another of the ministers was badly beaten up by students. The government suppressed the demonstration and arrested many students.

The next day students went on strike and soon other parts of the country were following suit. Demonstrations were held in every large city, nationalist speeches were extremely popular in every marketplace and town hall squares, and soon there was a boycott of Japanese products.

Events soon moved from Beijing to Shanghai and, in addition to students and intellectuals, the lower class joined the movement. The lower classes were very angry at the current state of affairs, mistreatment of workers and poverty among peasants.

Looking for answers

All of these events created a wave of demonstrations that demanded the government's attention, mostly by giving in. Arrested students were all freed and Chinese officials who represented the country in Versailles were relieved of their duties as punishment. This also led to the fact that China was the only country in the world which refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

Improvements made by the May Fourth Movement could be viewed as mainly symbolic, especially since the Japanese were still in control of Shandong province. However, the May Fourth Movement bore even broader meanings as protests spread a strong sense of nationalism among the Chinese and were also associated with calls for modernization.

The Movement also reflected radical change in political discourse because many people saw that Confucian traditions had failed and resulted in a greater number of people looking for answers from more radical principles, such as communism.